Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Shy Guy

Well, I wish I had come across this before I wrote last week’s article. Nonetheless, I could use something a little quicker for this week, so here we go!

It seems that late last year, something of a hidden or even “lost” enemy from Super Mario Bros. 2 was discovered in a gray version of the Shy Guy:

It would appear that at some point prior to its release, or even before release in its former life as Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic for the Famicom Disk System, the gray Shy Guy was cut from the game. This must have come at a late point in development, as the manual still includes a picture of this excised enemy; as it happens, it was removed from the Super Mario Bros. 2 manual, though its cousin, the gray Snifit, still remains.

The creator of the above video, Joel Peterson, notes in an article on Destructoid that the description for the colorless creep reads “He moves slowly but he’ll persistently chase after the player if he sees them,” behavior not normally exhibited by the other varieties of Shy Guy.

If you would like to behold the gray Shy Guy for yourself, it’s possible via the Game Genie code XTXPLIKO XTXPGIYK AANPEXAA ZEVNIGPA, but only with certain versions of the game, it would seem. Doing so has them replace the Tweeters who occupy the game, yet were not mentioned in the Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic manual, making it apparent who likely replaced who.

Gray Shy Guys have since emerged to be a regular part of the rainbow of Shy Guys who make up the Mario canon these days, but it’s pretty cool to discover their true secret origin.